Time to Spare
by Commander
Summary: A civil war is tearing Townsville apart, which is the perfect opportunity for Gone with the Wind inspired Mojo x Blossom angst. Please, somebody stop me. One shot.


(AN: I wrote this for a Livejournal prompts community, with which I have a—you guessed it—Mojo/Blossom claim! This is not at all my best work, but Dracori talked me into posting it here, and I am easily persuaded. ;) Anything decent to offset the avalanche of PPG/RRB in this section, at any rate. And the world ALWAYS needs more Mojo/Blossom.

This was inspired from viewing _Gone with the Wind _with my mother. As if it doesn't become painfully obvious when you read it. Leave it to me to draw connections between Mojo Jojo and Rhett Butler.

As usual, the Powerpuff Girls and GWTW don't belong to me. Trust me, if I was Craig McCracken, Mojo/Blossom would be as canon as canon can be. (So thank God I'm not? Hee hee.))

O.o.O

Blossom Utonium hovered high above the city of Townsville, although not high enough to avoid feeling the heat of the flames that were engulfing the city.

Who started the fire? The revolutionaries? The equally violent traditionalists? Did it even matter anymore?

All Blossom could do was wonder how it could have gotten this far.

She didn't know where Bubbles or Buttercup were right then. Perhaps one of them had started the fire. Funny how this whole war had changed everyone… for the worse. Sure, the Powerpuff Girls had been neutral at first. What the revolutionaries proposed had been crazy. Break off from the United States? Eradicate not only the entire monster population, but all animals deemed "dangerous"—including dogs and cats? Enforce a strict death penalty on all crime, even littering?

It sounded ridiculous… but soon it was anything but a joke. Those who didn't side with them were often eradicated just like the "dangerous" animals.

And then it got worse. There were some purists who, in retaliation against the revolutionaries, began blowing up their headquarters. Then their homes—their homes that often housed innocent children.

Each side wooed the Powerpuff Girls. Blossom insisted that they remain neutral. They leant a helping hand to those whose lives were in danger, and had done what they could to stop the fighting—on _both _sides. At least at first.

Blossom didn't know when Buttercup had started siding with the radicals, but just earlier that day she had finally snapped when an enraged Bubbles had attacked a group of protesting revolutionaries. Buttercup screamed at Bubbles that the whole cause was a noble one, one that would do the town good, and that Bubbles and everyone like her were nothing more than fucking morons with their heads stuck up their asses; Bubbles, in turn, had screeched that Buttercup was a raving monster with no heart and less brains.

Soon the punches were flying, and Blossom's screams at them to stop were unheard. Bubbles and Buttercup chased each other through town, and Blossom tore after them as best she could. Screaming flashes of blue, green, and pink whizzed by the TV station—Mojo Jojo's volcano—City Hall, or at least what was left of it after the traditionalists had forced the Mayor out and taken it over as their own—but soon Blossom lost sight of them. She screamed their names until her voice grew hoarse, but they never answered.

The fire had, however.

And so now she was all alone, hovering above a city on fire, crying at the city and what a handful of crazies had done. She couldn't put out the fire by herself, but she had no choice but to try. Bubbles and Buttercup weren't answering her—for all she knew, they had killed each other in their rage.

She drew in the biggest breath that she could, despite the smoke that was filling the air and nearly choking her, and then blew.

And blew.

And blew…

_And blew…_

The city seemed blurred through her eyes, thanks not only to the still-rising smoke but also her dizziness, but she drew in another breath anyway. She had hardly made a dent in the fire, and if she didn't do anything, no one else would. This time, instead of merely a super-breath, her ice breath came flowing out, making an impossibly tiny ripple in the huge blaze. Blossom's lungs were collapsing, but she still had to keep this up, or else…

…or else…

She fell from the sky, into the fire.

O.o.O

It wasn't a long fall, but the smog kept her mind dizzy and unable to even command her eyes to open for a few moments. When she finally managed to pry them open, she wished she hadn't. She was in Townsville Park, where the grass was amazingly still green, clashing with the blood-red sky. People were running, screaming in panic and fear, pushing each other out of the way, thinking only of their own safety. One sobbing little boy tripped and was trampled by the crowd. Blossom let out a choking sob from her vantage point from afar.

"Pathetic, isn't it?"

Blossom slowly—since she was still too pained to stand up—turned towards the voice. He had startled her, but she had recognized the voice right away. Through the smoke stood Mojo Jojo, at the base of his volcano, with an arsenal of weapons at his sides.

The war had not affected Mojo—and yet, because of his inaction, he too had changed. He never took a side. He attacked both armies with equal force as they themselves had fought over his volcano-top observatory, a prime military base.

The Powerpuff Girls had been there too. The guns had roared at the base of the volcano, the girls' fists had flown, Mojo's weaponry had shaken the foundations of the earth. The girls had not been fighting for or against Mojo, and yet for the first time the four of them fought side by side. Mojo took no jabs against the girls. The girls were trying to stop the bloodshed, nothing more. It was simply a side-note that the battle took place at Mojo's. He seemed to be fighting to stop the fighting along with them.

But Blossom knew Mojo better than that.

She looked at his weaponry and made a cynical half-laugh in her throat. "Finally picking a side, huh?"

"I do not have any side in this war other than myself," said Mojo. "The cause of Mojo Jojo is the only cause I've ever believed in."

"Then what are you doing?" Blossom demanded harshly.

"I plan on making a last stand against this madness."

"You'll die."

Mojo grimaced, in an almost competitive manner. "Probably."

"Don't be a moron," Blossom hissed. "Don't you realize it won't accomplish anything? For all I know, my father could be dead right now. This madness turned my own sisters against each other—they're probably dead too. The strongest people I know have been defeated by this. There's nothing we can do."

"What do you expect me to do, Powerpuff Girl Blossom? Run away like a coward?" snapped Mojo.

"Don't do this, Mojo," Blossom insisted.

"I cannot run away like you can, Blossom," said Mojo softly. "You can run away, flee, find a place of safety, in such a way that you are not cowardly in doing so. You run as if only to survive to fight another day. I run because I fear that you will beat me to a pulp. I am tired of being a coward. Just once I would like to run _into _a fight, not away from it."

"You're no coward," said Blossom fiercely. "You never have been. So quit thinking that you have to kill yourself to prove that you aren't!"

"You seem averse to my leaving," said Mojo, smiling at Blossom. It irritated her, and she harrumphed.

"You're an asset to the millions of innocent people caught in this crossfire! This madness has to stop, and I can't do it alone."

"Am I hearing you correctly?" gasped Mojo, in mock surprise. "A Powerpuff Girl admitting that she needs Mojo Jojo? And next I'll be seeing pigs fly! And of all Powerpuff Girls to need me, but _you! _You, the most stubborn of them all!"

"I am not!" gasped Blossom. "Everyone knows that Buttercup is the most hard-headed of all of us. And if you lived with Bubbles, you'd know she can be as unmoving as a rock as well. I'm the least stubborn."

"You're a liar, too."

"Am not!"

Mojo sighed. "Blossom, are we going to just argue at each other for the next ten minutes? Because I have very little time to spare. If we continue this back-and-forth exchange, soon there will be no one left to fight!"

"You and your dramatics," hissed Blossom. "Fine then, you fool. Go." She tried to stand up.

"Don't stand up!" Mojo suddenly snapped. "While it is true that I have little time to spare, it is also true that I am one for dramatics, and this has to be done right, with you lying so deceptively helpless on the ground, Blossom… _Blossom…"_

Blossom was up on her knees now, but Mojo was still taller than her, which seemed to be what was so important to him. He forcefully, as if driven by passion, leaned her back in the classic lovers' position, his arms wrapped around her neck and shoulders.

"What are you doing?" Blossom hissed, covering her fright with a growing tone of anger. She was frightened by the very serious passion in his eyes as they locked with her own, and she was frightened that she loved being looked at like that, that she loved being looked at like that by _him._

"I love you, Blossom," he said.

"What?" gasped Blossom.

"You heard me," he said, the fervor in his voice sending chills down Blossom's spine, chills that originated from where Mojo's arms were holding her to him fiercely, chills that made her lean her head back even more and close her eyes in surrender. "And of all the times to fall in love, too. Why is it that when the whole world falls apart, so does one's heart?"

"Stop it, you snake!"

"But I know why it had to be you, my love. In the middle of this hell, here we are, more alike than anyone would care to realize, too stubborn to accept defeat. Look at this mess."

"I… I can't," Blossom managed to say. It was hard to look at anything when someone was looking at you the way Mojo was.

"I love you more than I've ever loved any other woman." Blossom struggled against Mojo, and he smirked. "I love you more than I love myself."

"Liar!" snapped Blossom. "You bastard, you're lying! What do you want from me?"

"What do I want from you?" whispered Mojo. "What a question for you to be asking of me. Why would I lie at a time like this? You are right; I will most likely die. Why, then, would I want the last words of Mojo Jojo, the scourge of the city, the would-be ruler of the world, to be a declaration of love to his greatest enemy if it weren't true? As for what I want…" He pulled her even closer to him, their lips almost touching. "I want you, but that would be impossible even without this war. Realistically, all I can want at this point in time is to die with the memory of you on my lips. So please, Blossom, let me kiss you… just once…"

The flames of the city roared to their full rage as Mojo's desire spilled out in their kiss. For a few blessed moments Blossom was motionless against him, giving him full reign over her, and he leaned her down even farther, still kissing her passionately. But soon Blossom's arms were tightening, pushing against Mojo's, and he kissed her even harder. He knew she would fight back—he wouldn't have loved her if she hadn't—but the more she struggled, the sooner the end would come. He didn't _want _it to end. He wanted to just kiss her forever, until the flames devoured them.

Finally Blossom won her struggle. She yanked herself away and nearly fell over on her back. "You monster! You prick! How dare you do this to me—don't you have to go and die now?"

"Isn't it just like me?" laughed Mojo. "Why should you be so surprised? You said I like dramatics. I always long for what I can never have. I could have been happy with a jungle gym, perhaps a banana or two—but instead I desired the world. I could have had a simple female chimpanzee to love and take care of… but instead I fell in love with you."

"You're really playing up the drama now, aren't you?" growled Blossom. "Making a declaration of impossible, unrequited love right before you go marching to your death. You're hopeless. You don't have to do any of this!"

"What do I have to live for anymore?" Mojo asked with a shrug. "I don't want to die during a failed, pathetic attempt at world domination, felled by a Powerpuff Girl's blow."

"I'm coming with you," Blossom suddenly declared. "I'm not going to let them take me without a fight. And I have nothing to live for either!"

"You're a fool for saying that," snapped Mojo.

"It's true! My family is dead!"

"You don't know that. They could have survived this. They could be waiting for you. But me? I have no family waiting for me. And when this is over, who will the survivors turn to for comfort? Me?" Mojo laughed harshly. "Highly unlikely. But you, Blossom, have always kept a cool head in the time of crisis. And I know you will now, too. You are not as rash as I am." He smiled sadly at her. "Goodbye, my love."

"Mojo, wait! Don't do this!" Blossom screeched.

He kept walking towards the melee, not turning back.

"Don't be an idiot, Mojo! You bastard! You don't have to do this! Mojo!"

He disappeared through the smoke.

Blossom fell back to the earth, burying her face in her hands.


End file.
